Hammers and Fire – Agents of Change
Barbara Henderson
Have you ever considered different practical
ways that people show their love for someone else? I’m sure you could make up a list of things
that you do that give real evidence that you love someone particular, your
family, your church family, and people in general. You know what you are thinking, and you know
what the intentions are behind your actions.
It is quite a bit harder to correctly interpret other people’s actions
because you don’t know what they are actually trying to do or the message they
are trying to convey. The problem comes
in that no one is able to rightly interpret exactly what you need in the way of
help; of, if they do know what you actually need and want it may not be within
their capability to actually give you or do for you what you want. All you can do is do the best you can when
dealing with others, and accept things people do for you as doing the best they
can considering what is going on in his/her life at that time.
You don’t have any control over how
other people behave. You can’t make them
treat you in a particular way or give you exactly what you need/want at the
perfect moment. You do have control over
how you treat others. For an individual
to treat others well there is a key element.
That is love. To treat your
spouse, children, parents, and extended family well requires that you must love
them more than you love yourself. You
put their needs and even their wants above your own. We could go on about this for days. What are they ways you show unselfishness to
others? Where do you draw the line? What about what you can give someone or do
for someone in contrast to what they actually want or expect from you? And on and on and on. The point is to consistently love them more
than you love yourself. This enables you
to do what you need to do. The more you
love someone the easier it is to set aside your own wants in order to do
something for that person. If your
family is made up of deeply committed Christians, then they are also supposed
to love you more than they love themselves.
Ultimately, the sacrifices made for a loving Christian family are repaid
in the sacrifices they make for you.
There is joy in seeing their joy.
They have joy in seeing your joy.
It is win, win, win for everyone.
But if you had to pare it down to one
simple action that you do for your loved ones, what would be the most
important? That one thing is to tell the truth.
This you can do regardless of your social or economic status, your age,
your health, your personality, and anything other circumstances in your life. Obviously that doesn’t mean tell someone,
‘The jeans don’t make you look fat. You
look fat because you are fat.’ It means
tell the truth. That means the unadorned
truth. You can tell the truth with
compassion. You can tell it with the
spirit of love that comes from loving that person more than you love
yourself. But the truth is what is of
utmost importance, and the truth is what you must speak. No sound decisions can be made, no right
actions can be taken, no good thing can come from something based on lies! Yes, little lies matter.
And no-where is the truth more
important than when you speak the truth of Bible. What every Christian needs to always remember
is the Bible is full of harsh realities.
Notably, there is the reality of hell.
There is the reality of various sorrows, trials, uncertainties, death,
and trouble affecting individuals throughout the Bible. That is the truth! When the modern church preaches a very happy
life through proper amounts of giving and thinking happy thoughts the church is
lying. The joy of the Lord is very real,
but that joy is not bound to circumstances.
Christians often experience many good things in their lives, but they
are not exempt from sorrow and trials.
The Bible is also full of Jesus Christ
and how individuals can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ the
savior. The Bible is very clear. We live once.
We die once. And then we face
eternity. Believers will face the final
judgment as children adopted into the family of God. They will have an eternity spent in heaven as
a joint heir with Jesus Christ Himself.
Those who face eternity without Jesus Christ will spend eternity in
hell. That is the unvarnished truth, or
the dark sayings of old mentioned in the Bible.
People don’t like that reality.
It sounds so harsh and filled with sorrow. So, the plan is to avoid the
subject for most people. I can
understand that for people who don’t know they have options! Many people actually don’t know they have the
option of heaven through Jesus Christ.
Death is the big question mark, and for these people it is just better
to avoid the subject all together.
People want to know the truth. They want some assurance about what is going
to happen when they die. They definitely want to avoid hell if there is a
hell. They want to go to heaven if there
is a heaven. They actually don’t know
what heaven really is, but reason tells them that heaven is going to be a
better place than hell.
These people often make it into a
Christian church on a Sunday morning.
And there they hear the sweet things of the Bible. They hear, ‘God loves you. God wants you to
be happy. Come to Jesus and see the good things that happen in your life. And support the work of the church and just
watch Jesus bless you personally.’
But they don’t hear the truth that Jesus
Christ is the ONLY way to heaven. They
don’t hear the truth that Jesus Christ does not mingle with false ways and
silly little gods of this world.
People often avoid telling the blunt
truth of Jesus Christ because of two things.
First they are simply uncomfortable with speaking out. This can be overcome by gaining a better
vision of the future. Specifically you
want to see the future of those who reconcile to God through Jesus Christ and
those who reject Jesus. One is spending
eternity in heaven and one is spending eternity in hell. If you could wave a magic wand and put
someone on the Titanic on a safe ocean liner would you do it? Of course you would. Lost souls are sinking into hell. You have the truth that will put off the ship
that is sinking into hell and onto that old Ship of Zion that is going to
heaven.
Another reason people don’t speak up
with the truth of Jesus Christ is the fear of offending someone who is already
offended by the gospel. Many people
simply don’t want to hear it. But if
they don’t hear it how will they ever come to know the saving grace of Jesus
Christ. It is like they have a shell of
titanium covering their hearts and conscience.
Now, sweet words of the good life Jesus is promising them is like
rubbing a chunk of titanium with a tiny piece of fine sandpaper. The effect is going to be negligible. You will never get through to the conscience
that is under the barrier. On the other
hand, there is the fire and hammer approach.
No, I do no mean you can brow-beat someone into accepting Jesus
Christ. But they do have to hear the
gospel presented in a clear manner.
Nothing has the power to break through the shell over a conscience
except the good news of Jesus Christ. (Is not my word like as a fire? saith the
Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29 ) The truth of Jesus Christ is both the hammer and the fire that can bring about the change a person needs to step into the eternal safety offered by Jesus Christ alone.
To avoid telling the unvarnished truth
of Jesus Christ and the way into heaven is not loving. Yet, that is what many churches are
doing! They are so caught up in telling
the world that Jesus loves them that they forget there is a lot more to the
story. That is like focusing on
Christmas but forgetting Easter! Yes,
Jesus came as a baby, but He also lived a life of sacrifice and suffering which
ended with Him being nailed to a cross.
And the rest of that story is He rose from the dead proving His power of
death. It isn’t really about having that
perfect life here on earth that you imagined.
It isn’t about finding your soul mate or living your dream of a nice
house and car and lovely vacations. It
is about entering the kingdom of heaven for eternity and escaping hell. It is about showing your love and respect for
God Almighty who saved you! The devil
builds fortresses around the hearts and minds of those who belong to him. Sweet words, platitudes, and forming
alliances with the world will not break down these barriers. It takes the fire and the hammer of God’s
Holy Word to get through to these people.
Fortunately, the power is in God.
It isn’t in us or how well we present the gospel, or how powerful our
words happen to be, or how much emotion we can stir up in someone, or anything
else that is in us as individuals. It is
in the simple truth of the Bible.
I recently listened to a series on the
apostles and their different personalities and characteristics. It was comforting to learn that Jesus used
such a variety of people. He used introverts, extroverts, impulsive, reserved,
determined, wishy-washy, older, younger, brave, and even sometimes
cowardly. Jesus used the willing. That’s all.
It wasn’t their own charisma or brilliance. He took these frail imperfect men and used
them to point many to the entrance to heaven.
After Jesus’ assentation to heaven each apostle preached the gospel
without apology, relying on the power of God and not their own. Once again it was the fire and hammer of
God’s word and His power that enabled them to avoid compromise. It is that same power that will enable
individual Christians to speak the truth of the way into heaven without
compromise.
Nothing is more irritating that a
supposed Christian saying something like ‘Well – Christianity works for me’ as
though something else may work for someone else. The truth is it ‘works’ for anyone who
accepts Jesus’ offer of entrance into heaven through accepting Him as the way,
the truth, and the life. Christianity is
not a philosophy designed to help people cope with life. It is the truth of God
Almighty. It is the only means by which
one can be reconciled to the God who created him/her. First believe and you have gained eternal
salvation through Jesus Christ. Then be
obedient to God’s instructions as written down for us in the Bible. (And don’t forget to be thankful.)
The unvarnished truth is becoming a
rarity in the pulpit of all places!
Preachers of the gospel go on stage with the sole purpose of presenting
an uplifting sermon. That want to help the
congregation experience the Lord. They
have forgotten their job is to clearly tell people how to be reconciled to God,
and explain the consequences of NOT reconciling to God during their life
time. The second aspect of the
preacher’s job is to teach believers the rules by which God requires them to
live. And, he is to love them more than
he loves himself. The New Testament
tells many times that Jesus was motivated by compassion. His compassion caused Him to act on behalf of
those in need. But we are never told
that His compassion involved dumbing down the gospel or trying to make people
feel good or have an emotional experience.
I am sure that there is no doubt that people often felt better and were
quite emotional when they met Jesus, but those feelings were never the reason
for His actions. And neither should they
be the reasons for our actions or lack of actions. All we have to do is speak the truth as it is
written in the Bible. We don’t have
power or authority to change the message.
If people don’t like the message they don’t have to listen to it. If they don’t like the message they can take
it up with God. But don’t expect the
messenger to change the message. Don’t
expect the messenger to avoid giving people in need the message of salvation! As messengers in the service of Jesus Christ the King the job of Christians is to consistently tell the truth.
For our God is a consuming fire! Hebrews 12:29
I Love to Tell the Story
I love to write – and I have several
books published on Kindle. Here is a
link to my author page.
Thanks for looking.
